Still Poor Women representation in the Boards of Indian Corporates.

The corporate world has always been dominated by the testosterone filled males but this has changed, with almost 15% of women holding board seats in listed Indian companies. There is high scope of increasing awareness

Women in India are seen to take over in every field, with Narendra Modi encouraging women for all aspects. The new SEBI directive of having one woman director has led to the steady rise. Last year there was a mere 4% of female representation from women in the board seats of Indian companies.

Among 1,691 NSE listed companies, companies such as Godrej Agrovet and IT services company Airan Limited boast of five women members on board and three independent directors who are women.

Pranav Haldea, MD of Prime Database thanked the new regulations, by saying “The regulatory nudge has helped in taking up the number of women on corporate boards. On their own, companies may have felt some inertia,”

It is also seen with studies and research that companies which had one woman director yielded higher return on equity and higher net income growth.

Nisaba Godrej, Chairperson of Godrej Consumer agrees with this, “Research has shown that people like to work in companies that are diverse and have an inclusive culture. So, diversity also helps us attract and retain the best talent.”

Godrej’s success lies in the fact of grooming women leaders. Godrej has made it mandatory to evaluate at least 20 per cent of women for roles in sales etc. and at least 50% for HR and marketing.

Globally, India is far away with European countries leading in terms of women in their boards. Norway has a high percentage of 46.7%, while France and Sweden have roughly 34% of women on their boards according to a Credit Suisse analysis.

Studies from the series The Bottom Line have shown that companies with most women board directors has 16% higher Return on Sales than those with the least. It also showed that companies with fewer women on board had more governance related controversies which can drastically affect a company negatively.

The saying, ‘behind every successful man is a woman’ will need to add to ‘behind every successful man is a woman and right in front of him is a woman leading his company the right way!’

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